Peugeot, a french pepper grinder and bicycle maker was early out as a car maker, producing its first three-wheeled car in 1889, thus becoming one of the oldest car brands in the world still in production. Peugeot was competing in car racing when the 1900's was young, but keep in mind that the automobile was hardly more than a recreational, sporty toy for the upper classes at that time. After the first world war, Peugeot started making small affordable cars, the first real success being model 201. It was also the first model bearing the charachteristic three-digit model name with a zero in the middle. During WWII, Peugeot's factories were used by the German war machine, hence being bombed by the allies. After the war had ended, Peugeot came to produce some of the most famous European post war-cars, like the chubby and likable Peugeot 403, the cool and elegant 404 and the sturdy and long-lived African favourite Peugeot 504, which was produced by Peugeot up until 1983, and on licence in many countries. In Kenya and Nigeria, the last one rolled of the production line as late as in 2006. During the 70's Peugeot aquired its French competitor Citroën, forming the PSA-group.

Today, Peugeot is known for producing popular European small hatchbacks, such as the 208and the 308as volume models.